Educational Science

By Jove! NASA Probe Arrives at Jupiter After 5-Year Trek

PASADENA, California — For the second time ever, a spacecraft has slipped into orbit around huge and mysterious Jupiter. NASA's robotic Juno probe began circling the solar system's largest planet tonight (July 4), ending a nearly five-year journey through deep space and becoming the first spacecraft to enter Jupiter orbit...

Surprise! Jupiter Has a Great 'Cold' Spot, Too

Jupiter is famous for its Great Red Spot, a storm twice the diameter of Earth that rages on the gas giant's surface. Now, researchers have found that it has a second great spot, almost as large — this one, a Great Cold Spot caused by the planet's vibrant auroras. Researchers...

Last summer, scientists announced they had discovered a dozen new moons orbiting Jupiter. But now comes the hard part: naming them. The researchers announced that they want some help with that task, asking astronomy buffs to submit their name suggestions for five of the new discoveries. If you're up to...

Close-Approaching Jupiter Dazzles in New Hubble Photo

Jupiter's gorgeous bands and raging storms are on full display in a jaw-dropping new photo by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. Hubble snapped the photo on Monday (April 3), just four days before Jupiter comes into opposition — that is, forms a straight line with Earth and the sun, with Earth...

On Jupiter's Moon Europa, More Tantalizing Signs of Giant Water Plumes

Good news on the alien-life-hunting front: The towering plumes emanating from Jupiter's ocean-harboring moon Europa appear to be real. In late 2012, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope spotted what seemed to be 125-mile-high (200 kilometers) geysers of water vapor erupting from Europa's south polar region. This news was exciting for astrobiologists...

See Juno Probe's Amazing Up-Close Views of Jupiter's Great Red Spot (Photos)

You can now feast your eyes on the first up-close photos of Jupiter's famous Great Red Spot ever taken. On Monday night (July 10), NASA's Juno spacecraft zoomed just 5,600 miles (9,000 kilometers) above the mammoth storm's cloud tops — closer than any probe had gotten before. For generations, people...

Why Jupiter's Rapid Growth Spurt Was Delayed for Millions of Years

New research suggests why Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system, waited about two million years for its early-formation growth spurt. A team led by a Swiss researcher found that kilometer-size worlds smashed into the giant planet during that time, generating zones of high energy. This bombardment made it...

Why Is Jupiter's Great Spot Red?

Jupiter's Great Red Spot has swirled for hundreds of years, but the source of its distinctive color remains a mystery. New laboratory experiments are working to produce that color — and others found in Jupiter's stormy cloud tops — here on Earth, and researchers have found that radiation and temperature...

New Jupiter Images: Do You See Cotton Candy or Van Gogh's 'Starry Night'?

Jupiter's swirling cloud tops, photographed by NASA's Juno probe, look like something straight out of a dream, or even a famous painting. Citizen scientist Amelia Carolina Sparavigna saw the similarities between the real-world snapshot and the whirling patterns that Vincent Van Gogh used to represent the night sky in his...